Cake Mixes And Nut Allergies??

My dd's b-day is next week and she wants me to bring cupcakes in for her class. The only rules are no nuts and no strawberries (due to allergies in the class). I read somewhere that some cake mixes aren't nut free.How do I know?

Just a side note, I once had a mom not let her daughter eat my cupcakes because I used almond extract. Majority opinion is that imitation almond won't bother a nut allergy but I'd never even thought twice about using it!

Our school only allows packaged foods for this reason. We can't bake anything. You might double check before you go to the trouble. And if I'm able to take baked goods somewhere, I usually take a prepackaged Rice Krispy Treat for the allergy kids. (I hate for them to feel left out.)

Just a side note, I once had a mom not let her daughter eat my cupcakes because I used almond extract. Majority opinion is that imitation almond won't bother a nut allergy but I'd never even thought twice about using it!

Almond Extract is not necessarily imitation. In the truest sense of the word "extract", it's made from almond oils combined with an alcohol base. Kinda like perfume.

The purest form, fittingly called Pure Almond Extract, is made from almonds and alcohol alone. It's the most flavorful and most expensive. Since it contains nut oils, it can trigger allergies.

Natural Almond Extract also uses almond oil but in a lesser proportion than Pure. It contains cassia bark essence to strengthen the aroma. This too can trigger nut allergies.

Almond Flavor is synthetically manufactured to approximate almond flavor and aroma. It may be sold as Imitation Almond Extract or almond Imitation Extract in the US but not in the EU where it may only be labelled only as a flavor or flavoring, not as an extract (even with Imitation or Artificial attached). It doesn't trigger nut allergies.

So yes, as a parent of a child with a nut allergy, I would not allow my child to eat anything containing almond flavoring as I wouldn't know what type of flavoring was used.